Monday, September 30, 2013

Sixteen year old Ciara Ginty from Mayo won gold at the AIBA Women's Junior + Youth World Boxing Championships 2013 over the weekend - a huge achievement for Irish boxing. She was also picked as Best Junior Boxer out of 160 boxers from 31 countries

I was just listening to Ginty being interviewed on radio from Bulgaria - she sounded quite shell-shocked still even two days later. And of course the comparisons with Katie Taylor have already started, helped by them being in the same weight category at 60kgs.

Ginty said: "It's been absoloutely fantastic, great experience boxing at such a high level. It's been a really tough competition and it's been really great to be part of an Irish squad ... I was really nervous but I couldn't let that ruin my chances.'

The presenter asked her if it has all sunk in yet. She replied: "That took a while to sink in (being the first world champ in boxing after Taylor), it eventually did." So no pressure there, then!

Her teammate Christina Desmond took silver at 69kgs, and Jacqui Lynch took bronze in the 48kgs division leaving and Ireland finished a very credible 7th overall, more results here.

The AIBA Women’s Junior World Championships are staged over 13 weight categories: 44-46kg, 48kg, 50kg, 52kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63kg, 66kg, 70kg, 75kg, 80kg and 80+kg. Bouts are held over three rounds of two minutes with a one-minute rest between rounds. Boxers born between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 1998 can register.

The AIBA Women’s Youth World Championships are staged over 10 weight categories: 45-48kg, 51kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg and 81+kg. Bouts are held over four rounds of two minutes with a one-minute rest between rounds. Boxers born between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 1996 can register.

The main thrust is what we've been saying on this blog for years - success breeds money breeds success. It's finally happening too as the piece lists people like NASCAR driver Danica Patrick who took $9m in sponsorship last year alone.

Female American athletes won more medals at London2012 than the male competitors according to the piece, will be interesting to see if that affects the division of funding for Rio2016?

And here's something you might not know: "Women’s football is the fourth-largest team sport in England, measured
by participation (after men’s football, rugby and cricket)."

Unfortunately the reality behind these stand-outs is less money, less sponsorship and startlingly less media coverage than for male sports. To be fair the piece cites ESPN and SKY on their much improved coverage but overall in American women's sports gets just :"1.62% of sporting airtime on big networks"

However the analysis is positive for the future, with another curious nugget being the growth of male fans for women's sports. That's really exciting as far more men watch sport anyhow than women, so to get them shifting their attention over is important. And to be honest, most female athletes don't care if there is a sexual element to that or not - bums on seats is what counts IMHO.

Monday, September 9, 2013

American boxer Sylvie von Duuglas Ittu has been living and training in Thailand for over a year now at Lanna Gym in Chiang Mai.

In this great short film, she discusses her fighting aims. She's gone from being happy to have a fight at all to wanting ten, and then 50.

Now? She says: "I thought if I can accomplish 50 fights, that's great, that's it. Now that I'm at 40 and ten away from what that goal was ....once you reach 50 then onto 51...."

Fighters training in the West will enjoy (or be horrified by) this look behind the scenes at a MuayThai fight night in Northern Thailand. Fighters sit on the ground to have their hands wrapped in the shadows, barely lit by street-lights.

And Von Duuglas Ittu also discusses violence, and the difference between simple street brutality and the beauty of a boxing ring.